The documentary Searching for Mr. Rugoff is the story of a now-unknown giant in independent cinema. I was drawn to learn more about Donald Rugoff, whom I hadn’t heard of, because he was responsible for the US distribution of a slate of essential foreign and independent films that were the spine of American art house cinema:
- Bruce Brown’s seminal surf movie Endless Summer (1965)
- Milo Forman’s international breakthrough The Fireman’s Ball (1966)
- Robert Downey, Sr.’s iconoclastic Putney Swope (1968)
- Costa-Gavras’ double Oscar winning Z (1968) and State of Siege (1972)
- The Mayles’ Rolling Stones-at-Altamont doc Gimme Shelter (1970)
- De Sica’s The Garden of the Finzi-Continis (1970)
- the great doc about a child faith healer grown up, Marjoe (1972)
- one of the funniest movies I’ve ever seen, The Tall Blond Man with One Black Shoe (1972)
- Bergman’s Scenes from a Marriage (1973)
- Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975)
- Barbara Kopple’s Oscar winning Harlan County, USA (1976)
- and more films by Ken Loach, Marcel Ophüls, Lina Wertmüller, Werner Herzog, Agnes Varda, François Truffaut and Satyajit Ray.
As we learn in Searching for Mr. Rugoff:
“From 1965 to 1978 [Rugoff’s company] Cinema 5 received 25 Oscar nominations and 6 Oscars. 16 nominations were for foreign language films, 6 were for documentaries.”
Ira Deutchman made this film when he heard that Rugoff, his first boss, had ended up buried in a pauper’s grave; (watch the movie to discover the truth on that).
However, Donald Rugoff was notoriously disheveled and unpleasant. He always had two secretaries posted outside his office because of the high probability that one would quit at any time. He was so volatile that many of his associates incorrectly believed that he had a steel plate in his head that affected his behavior. His own son describes him as a “toxic figure” in the home.
So, there we have it – the guy with the best possible movie taste and the most elevated artistic sensibilities was personally a barbarian.
He was, however, also a mad genius of PT Barnum-like promotion. Until times changed and he wasn’t. Rugoff’s life was a wild ride – and it was critical to an important moment in cinema.
Searching for Mr. Rugoff is opening in person at and streaming from the Roxie. I streamed it from Laemmle.